The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain

Two English mapmakers arrive in the small Welsh village of Ffynnon Garw in 1917 to survey the area for a new map. When Reginald Anson and George Garrad measure the hill the villagers proudly call the first mountain in Wales, they find it falls short of the height needed to be classified as a mountain. The residents, who take the distinction seriously, refuse to accept the verdict. While some try to stall the cartographers' departure, others set out to raise the hill to the required height themselves.

Christopher Monger wrote and directed the film, a comedy with dramatic and romantic elements that runs about ninety minutes. Hugh Grant plays Anson, the younger of the two surveyors, with Ian McNeice as his colleague Garrad. Tara Fitzgerald appears as Betty, and Colm Meaney, Ian Hart and Kenneth Griffith are among the villagers. The production, made in the United Kingdom by Parallax Pictures with Miramax, had a budget of 40 million dollars and took in about 11 million dollars worldwide.

Audience response on TMDB sits at 6.3 out of 10 from 328 votes, while a critics' rating stands at 6 out of 10 from 33 reviews, so critics and general viewers generally landed in the same range. The film was released in May 1995 and is one of the director's earlier features.